


Drivels of the Blackened

by GoldenCarriagesRequiem



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon - Manga, Inspired by Silent Hill 2, Loss of Identity, M/M, Memory Loss, Psychological Horror, mentions of others - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27942524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenCarriagesRequiem/pseuds/GoldenCarriagesRequiem
Summary: They are totally unaware of how they got to this town, and they gradually keep missing more and more pieces than could potentially get them out of the place. When the fog and the darkness set in, the properties of (what Kaiba assumes must have been) the Cube, goes on to take away more from one of them, and alter the nature of the other.Their relationship was never easy, and it will now become harder. If not kept at a relative peace now, Kaiba knew for sure that there would be nothing left of them to take back to reality.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 8
Kudos: 9





	1. Equals

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I've never posted anything before, but this time, I did it our of sheer anger. I don't know if I'm doing it right. If I'm messing up, I wouldn't mind some pointers in the right direction, because I'm too much of a boomer to figure out things myself, apparently.  
> On with the thing.

# Equals

***

The whiteness of the tiles around them almost made Kaiba’s head hurt more than Jououchi trying to get the door open by any means possible, be it kicking it down, pulling on the knob, and even using a multitool he had taken out of the breast pocket in his jacket. These were useless endeavours. He had no clue why it was that he knew this, but that door wasn’t opening again. Not to let anyone out, but perhaps it would allow someone else in.

“ _Romani ite domum_ ,” he said aloud.

“What?”

That was strange. That should have kicked them out. Could it be it didn’t work in this area? His attention went somewhere else. The pit at Kaiba’s feet looked like the only way out of this test room that was beginning to feel new and startling even though they had been stuck here for a while. He recalled programming something vaguely like this when he was working on the alfa, to test the physics, but it had been just a white room with shapes and different types of surfaces in it, and he had removed it. All of that had been stripped away, and all that was left was a hole and a door he didn’t remember adding. Perhaps one of the team had put it back in and added features for some reason. Certainly not with his permission.

Out of his wallet, he took out a single coin and dropped it into the pit. No sound, not anything. The red symbols that surrounded the pit glowed brightly for a second, as the sound of a siren flew up along with a gust of wind. Jounouchi cursed behind him, startled.

Oh, well. He had put up with the Quantum Cube’s strange reactions once; he had a feeling he could come back from this one as well. There wasn't much around to assist him other than his own wit, but if the blond idiot could stop babbling for a second, he could probably count on some degree of street smarts and survival skills to help things. Even an extra pair of hands might come in handy.

“We are not doing that," Jounouchi said, noticing his intention to jump. "There’s gotta be a way to get this thing to open. I’ve _seen_ escape rooms.”

It didn’t look like any sort of help was about to happen, and he lacked the patience to ask anybody, much less try to convince them. His loss. Kaiba jumped in.

Not sure when or in which moment, things around him seemed to shift. There was no fall, but he blinked, and he was quite clearly sitting on some sort of ground. Pressing his hand above him, he no longer felt the hole, but he could hear Jounouchi shouting from above anyway.

“I’m fine,” he answered.

“What happened!”

“I’m inside a tunnel. I can see the exit from here,” he said, as he began to crawl outside.

“Are you injured?”

“I said I’m fine.”

“I can barely hear you!”

Indeed, Jounouchi’s voice was getting further away with every sound that came out of their mouths, at a much faster rate than Kaiba was moving away from him. And then it was very near again.

“What the hell was that?” He heard a mutter from behind. He didn’t turn around, or bother to answer. He kept crawling. That was it for his favourite coat, then. Not the time to be worrying about that, but he found it hard to focus on anything else.

The tunnel led to a forest. His foot landed on dry leaves when he jumped out of what he had first assumed must have been a water duct but…

That was a wall. The building was just one big block, but still discernible as a school building, right in the middle of the wilderness, with all its windows covered in more grime that what would allow him to look inside. The dirt wasn’t on the outside. His fingers stayed clean after running them over the surface. There was a clear path leading away into the distance from what looked like the entrance to the school. In the middle of nothing, it would have been difficult to tell where it would take them.

He heard familiar footsteps behind him. Until now, he had never stopped to consider that he knew what Jounouchi sounded like when he moved. They had spent way too much time together lately, what with the…

The ‘what,’ exactly? He didn’t remember. But he had to be here as well for a reason.

“This is weird,” Jounouchi said.

“Thank you for your keen observation.”

“No problem. Now, if you can stop being an ass and move for a second, I could look into that lock.”

He let Jounouchi move in front of the door and crouch in front of it, hopefully to hear that he could pick it, but all he did he did was sigh, in the end.

“It’s a really curved keyhole. It ain’t happening.”

_We could break a window open_ , he thought, but the thought vanished like it had never been there in the first place. It was strange. He was left feeling like he had just had a reasonable idea, but he couldn’t remember what it was anymore. Jounouchi stood up and looked around at the eerily similar trees and the leafy somethings. Kaiba was doing his best to ignore the bottle shards. Or shiny algae. Or tiny little green vases and little jelly flowers. This were all descriptions for the same thing. He couldn’t decide which one fit better, for none of them were good.

“Hey, Kaiba. Do you also feel like you’re having a stroke?”

He looked away. Much better. If he couldn’t tell what something was, now he could blame it on the distance.

“What are you going on about?”

“Huh.” Jounouchi’s gaze went to rest on the horizon as well, seemingly tired of looking at things that made no sense. “Ok, you’re right. I think we should follow the path. It looks like our only option now.”

The entirety of the forest and a building right there were option that they had right there, but he forgot about them and agreed instead of pointing it out. They threaded on in silence, through a spindling path, never going outside of it, even at times when it would have been much more convenient that they did. When they reached a town, Jounouchi said aloud:

“Do you think anyone’s there?”

“Anyone who? As in any people?”

“Yeah.”

They were probably headed to a ghost town, but he didn’t care if it was. He had a specific set of people in mind that he wanted to find there, even if it would make no sense. He didn’t say anything more, still. Jounouchi would speak again on his own volition.

“I think Dad should be at the bar.”

“I literally don’t care.”

“I wonder if Mom’s nagging him to come back home.”

A flash of lucidity lasted long enough for Kaiba to point out that:

“I heard your parents were divorced.”

“Yeah. They are. But…” He jogged, putting some more distance between them. “Listen, Kaiba. You wanna keep that snail pace of yours, you can do it, but I’m gonna go look for them and getting this out of the way now.”

He had a different place in mind that he wanted to go to as well, and he didn’t want to stop on the way to check a random bar, following Jounouchi’s sudden delusions, but he had a point that they were moving along too slowly. There were no good reasons to stop and think about this for so long.

The town did everything it could to make it difficult to get anywhere. Some streets had been closed off by walls of concrete about as tall as a dam. Occasionally, there was a gate or a tent in the way. Silhouettes would scurry off into the distance, getting lost in the thick fog that had settled just a while before they had reached the town. Most buildings, they hadn’t even tried to approach. They could try…

One of Jounouchi’s shoes was making a strange sound, and it almost made Kaiba want to sock him. Almost. He did prove himself to be useful when he noticed a gate to an apartment complex that was slightly ajar, right after they had tried to walk around a blockade to no avail.

A siren blared, loud enough that it felt it could destroy his eardrums, and he somehow could still hear Jounouchi gulp. So damn annoying. When had he got this close?

“So… where are you headed?” the blond asked, obviously scared out of his mind.

“That’s none of your business,” he answered, pushing him back. He got a painful smack on his back in retaliation. He didn’t have the time for this. One glare was all he was willing to spare. Again, he couldn’t look into the building through the windows, so he would have to go in to investigate, and see if it would make a good base in case anything went down.

It was dark inside, except for the bit of light coming from the one little window on the door. The switch near the entrance didn’t work. They turned on their flashlights, and Kaiba walked in to the very centre of the lobby. The architecture screamed late eighties to early nineties, not the kind he remembered from his early childhood, but one with gaudy wallpaper and woodwork to cover the concrete walls. A few wooden benches, some boards on the walls, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, falling apart almost sadly. Moss, cracks, and tears. It was akin to an old schlock movie set. It didn’t feel real. There was a _shoe rack_ near the admission desk. He scrunched his face at it, but was ultimately more compelled by a lone doorframe standing right behind the counter in place of whatever was supposed to be there.

_You should wake up_.

He was trying now. But he wasn’t disconnecting out of this faulty simulation through sheer willpower as usual. There was a string of words to kick him out of problems like this, he was sure. He just had to recall it. It was in a different language. He found it sort of funny when he picked it, but not anymore. It made sense in—

“I… think I’m gonna go back and open the door again. It’s too dark in here,” Jounouchi interrupted. Kaiba paid him no mind. It smelled like rubbing alcohol here. Where was that coming from?

The handle clicked and the hinges creaked open. A gust of wind came from behind him, and the scent was so much stronger. Barely any light was coming into the lobby from the outside now that the door was open. Kaiba turned around, to scrutinize this uncomfortable fact. Jounouchi was standing there transfixed.

“What are you—”

A shattered, rippling, beast-like scream filled the air. Jounouchi slammed the door shut and ran. Whatever was outside, it was banging its whole weight against the door. A dark liquid seeped in from the cracks. Kaiba caught a glimpse of something, from an open window (a window?)

And he ran as well.

Before he could leave for one of the corridors at the back, a hand yanked him back and pulled him to the back of the counter. Jounouchi had turned his flashlight off. He did the same. As an accent to the unnatural noises, they could hear static coming from nearby. The door flung open, finally giving in to the onslaught, and they both pressed themselves further into one of the corners of the desk. This was a bad idea. If push came to shove and they had to run, neither would make it far away.

Kaiba turned the flashlight of his phone back on and threw it far into one of the hallways, and he was pulled back into the corner once more, this time being held in place so viciously, it was a miracle his elbow didn’t hit against the wooden cover of the desk and give their position away. The phone broke on impact, making a loud noise as it knocked down something made of glass. The creature ran for it, past them as the sound of the radio grew louder. Jounouchi was squeezing his arm so hard, he was sure that’d leave a bruise. His shuddering breath was in his ear. He turned around to see the blond with his face scrunched up and close to tears.

They waited, until the radio stopped, until they could no longer hear steps, until the howling came from so far away, they knew for sure there would be no need to run and hide like this again. Eventually, the building went back to being entirely silent. It was gone, lost somewhere inside the apartment building. While Jounouchi tried to compose himself, Kaiba reached out for the radio. It was still on, according to the position of the switch, at the very least. Probably broken. Much like…

“That was real, wasn’t it?” Jounouchi asked, looking tired, and perhaps a little embarrassed, but fine.

“Hell if I know.”

He touched his face. He couldn’t feel a headset, or anything strapped to his arm, or any tools that he could be using to achieve these effects. Was this real? Had he used the Cube? Had it messed up?

“Do you think we could have been playing a game and that it went rogue?” Kaiba asked.

“There’s no way in I’d ever be convinced to play a horror game, with you, of all people. And if it can go this rogue, then your tech fucking sucks.”

His response showed no real emotion other than a defeated cynicism behind. It was as if he was merely stating facts now. Kaiba didn’t really feel anything as he spoke either.

“Tell me that again when you’ve contributed to humanity in some way.”

“I’d rather have my shit together than be like you.”

Other than being half a conversation he didn’t care for having, actually, this raised a fair point. He couldn’t see himself asking the blond to join him for a match of anything. Crawling out of the tiny space he shared with Jounouchi, he peered out from the corner of the desk, quickly scanning his surroundings. The trail of black liquid the creature had left was evaporating rapidly and visibly, and remained in the air like suspended soot. Common sense was telling him not to go near it.

There was some dead weight on his back.

“What are you doing?”

“Is it gone?”

What was he, a child?

“Of course it’s gone. You heard it gone. Now get off me.”

He didn’t, so Kaiba shoved him off as he stood up from his crouching position.

“I hate that you’re like this,” Jounouchi said, straightening up as well.

“You’re not a pleasure to have around, yourself.”

“I disagree. What do we do now?”

He looked in the direction of the door. It was dark now, a starless sky. Did that matter?

“Can you point your light to me?”

Kaiba began to rummage through the drawers in the desk. There was a bullet magazine in one of them. Nine millimetres, it was full. He pocketed it and moved on to another drawer. A bottle of lighter fluid. Now if only he could find either the lighter or a gun, maybe he wouldn’t be so worried about the thing that had gone running into the building.

The flashlight was no longer pointing at him. He looked up to where Jounouchi was. He had begun walking towards a wall, being really careful to walk around the soot and not get any on himself. His flashlight pointed at an axe and a fire extinguisher, both safely kept behind glass.

“If you break that, and that thing hears it and comes back—”

“Dude, don’t make me any more nervous than I already am, and it won’t.”

Taking off his jacket, Jounouchi placed it against the glass, and punched it as hard as he could. It made a muted sound. He then bent over, hissing, and holding his hand. Kaiba approached, and reached out for the axe.

“I’m going to guess you won’t want to hold this yourself.”

Jounouchi took the extinguisher with his left hand. His right one was covered in glass shards.

“Just don’t swing at me with it,” he said.

“Why would I?”

“Because you’re a psycho.”

“I may have my issues, but antisocial disorders are not it.”

“Anymore.”

“Keep acting like a jealous bitch and I might develop something.”

Jounouchi answered nothing to that. He grasped his injured hand more firmly. That looked like it hurt.

“I’m gonna go take a peek outside.” Jounouchi said instead. But he wasn’t moving. He was taking too long. “Give me a second. This is… I’m still shaky.”

“I’ll do it myself,” Kaiba decided after standing with his arms crossed by what it felt like more than enough. He was used to performing under insane amounts of pressure. It didn’t mean that he liked it, or that he always did well, but he could do it. “Keep an eye out on that corridor.”

“Right.”

The gate was thankfully (perhaps?) closed. The sky loomed above like an empty nothingness engulfing the town. Gradually, but noticeably, the light coming from the posts was getting dimmer. He saw… he couldn’t tell what it was. It was close to a ten-year-old kid, both in shape and size, but it didn’t walk right. There were two more like it shambling about in the distance. Were those a safer bet to deal with than whatever they had just encountered?

He heard footsteps. Jounouchi was walking into the corridor.

“Where are you going?”

No reply came his way. Closing the door behind him, Kaiba walked up to him, to where he stood, at the bottom of a flight of stairs that felt oddly familiar. Some old toy cars were strewn about nearby.

The urge to pick up the blue car was proving hard to fight against. It looked the same. That was one of the many things he had been attached to and then never saw again. He had lived here, for a little under a year, not long before his father had passed away, and he had thought he would never see the place and his old things again. However, he wasn’t the only interested in the little piece of metal with tiny wheels.

“What’s this doing here?” Jounouchi said, picking it up. Kaiba snatched it away from his hand. It had the same scratches that he had put there to mark it as his, a letter S made with three straight lines. “Hey. Give me that back.”

“It’s not yours.”

“It is. I found it.”

“Just because you found it now that doesn’t mean—”

“I found it ages ago and endured a beating for it. Now give it back.”

Why were they even fighting over a damn toy car anyway? He threw it back at Jounouchi, who immediately pocketed it. It stung to see it go away again, but he didn’t need it. He wasn’t interested.

“I think I want to get out of here.”

“You don’t say so?”

“No, I mean… I know his place.”

Kaiba stopped for a moment.

“You do?”

“Yeah. I mean, only these stairs, the rest still looks… But these scribbles,” he said, pointing at some writing on one of the steps. “I’m sure my sister made them.” This bit of information seemed important. “Kaiba, where are we?”

Something was crawling nearby. Above. They both began looking around, aided by Jounouchi’s flashlight. Kaiba saw that his phone was intact, near a standing lamp, and he went on to grab it. Now he wouldn’t have to depend too heavily on someone else to see anything.

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“The answer to your question.”

“What question?”

It was coming from upstairs. They both stepped back, and turned the lights back off. The radio began to produce more sounds of static as it slowly went down. It steadily made its way down on many golden, swirling needles that acted as legs, dragging a pair of wings about as long as a person. Its spine, fleshy in appearance, moved under its leathery skin, like cogs on a machine. Its head was all beaks and eyes inside the beaks, with a feathery golden crown at its top. All the eyes turned to look at Kaiba, then at Jounouchi. They both held their makeshift weapons firmly.

It slowly circled them, and inched closer, as if making a clean line for Kaiba specifically, and completely ignoring Jounouchi’s presence until he stepped in between. The creature stopped, and appeared to lose interest. It then tried to circle around them again.

“Go up,” Jounouchi told him.

As much as he didn’t think highly of the concept of fleeing, Kaiba wasn’t about to argue. He could almost feel all the pointy bits of the monster digging into his flesh and organs, and churning them about until it had made a sort of pulpous soup within his ribcage. He had no doubt. The beast kept staring at him as he went up the stairs, deterred by Jounouchi, as if it was friendly to him. Breaking into a sprint, he entered the first door to the left.

He definitely knew this apartment. Why, wight there, the huge windows that led to the balcony were—

Footsteps rushed after him shortly after, followed by the distinct sound of something that was half a hawk, and half distant trumpet. Jounouchi bursted in, and leaned with his whole body against the door. Kaiba ran up to him to lean his shoulder too against the surface that was being frantically scratched on the outside.

He stayed there, breathing heavily, with cold sweat on his brow, and on the verge of feeling completely torn down with every beat of his hard and pulsing of his aching muscles, until the sounds stopped, and the creature dragged its wings away one more time.

He slid down against the door, completely crashing down on the floor, and stayed there, taking deep breaths and counting. One hundred, ninety-three, eighty-six, seventy-nine, seventy-two…

“You look so traumatized, I could almost cry.”

That made him snap back.

“You weren’t doing that great with the first one either. Or now, for that matter.” Jounouchi was also looking very pale, leaning against the dark, wooden door next to him. They both swallowed. “Did it attack you?”

Jounouchi blinked at him and said:

“No.” He looked sincere enough. He then stood up and began to close every single one of the twenty latches on this door.

“We haven’t checked if there’s anything with us in the bedroom or bathroom,” Kaiba pointed out.

“The radio isn’t making any noise, though.”

“Right.”

“Let’s take a break. Aren’t you tired?”

There was food in the fridge and running water. The lights went on, but they kept them off out of fear of attracting something. They would have to take turns to sleep. Jounouchi volunteered, saying that he was too scared to sleep anyway. Kaiba felt tired enough that he knew it wouldn’t be a problem.

The idea of having someone watch him as he slept strung no nice chords with him, but it was best that they stayed in the same room just in case. The last thing he saw, as he laid his head on the pillow, was Jounouchi thanking heavens for having his charger on himself.

_Just a short nap_ , was the last thought Kaiba had for the time being.

He was woken up after what felt like a really short time with a gentle sway to his shoulder. He jumped, but calmed down immediately. It couldn’t be that urgent. It was most likely just his turn to keep watch. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly took in the darkness.

“How much time has it been?”

“Six hours.”

There was soot in the room.

“You know. I’m fairly sure that first one was for me. Didn’t it remind you of trash bags? I think it might be connected to something I remember from way back, when I used to live here.”

It was at that moment that Kaiba finally noticed the white noise in the background.

“There’s something nearby.”

Jounouchi gulped.

“It’s fine. It’s nothing.”

Kaiba knew a face that stared because it wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to bring it up. Bad news, maybe?

“Spit it out.”

Jounouchi nodded.

“You know,” he said, as a speck of soot floated in front of him. “I would have given everything to have what you do back in the day. I really hate how easy you have it when it comes to doing whatever the hell you want to do.”

Kaiba laughed at him.

“Not the best moment for this sort of talk.”

“I can’t keep it to myself. I just had to wake you up to say that.”

Jounouchi looked dead serious. And almost relieved.

“I don’t really care about how you feel.” Kaiba said.” You’re the one doing whatever you want, though, aren’t you? I heard you took a week off to ‘stay away from this toxic environment.’”

And Jounouchi smirked.

“Jealous?”

“I would saw my tongue off, if it meant not hearing about your stupid easy-going life,” Kaiba answered with a deadpan expression. Jounouchi laughed at his response, and he felt like he should be angry, but this was fine. All humour was instantly gone.

“Kaiba?”

“Yes?”

“How do I leave?”

“Leave to where?”

They both stopped to think.

“I don’t know. How did we end up here?”

“I don’t remember.”

“But we do know each other, right? I didn’t make all of that up?”

"We definitely do. You piss me off.”

“What have I ever done to you?”

“Nothing much, to be honest. It's what you stand for.”

Jounouchi sat on the bed, and leaned back. He stared at ceiling, and Kaiba did the same, from his half-sitting position, all while wondering just what material it was. It shifted for a while, and then in settled. Wood. This had to be a rather nice neighbourhood.

“Don’t you think this place feels kind of home-y?” Jounouchi asked.

He thought back. The arrangement of the furniture was different, but some things were in the same place. If he reminisced hard enough, he could almost see his father…

“In front of the kitchen sink, doing the dishes, right? Mom used to wear a white apron.”

With a deep breath, Kaiba nodded to himself. That was correct. He didn’t know about Jounouchi’s mother, but his father had taken that role for a while. Some memories would stay, it seemed.

“I’m getting hungry again,” Jounouchi added.

Kaiba turned the radio off. It was getting on his nerves. There was nothing here anyway.

“You already ate?”

“A little bit. Want me to bring something?”

Thinking about eating and food didn’t sit well with his stomach. Jounouchi didn’t wait. He stood up, and he was about to leave. Kaiba pulled him back with a hand that he only now noticed was stained in black. The need he felt to absolutely torture the blond struck him as not only stranger than this change in physiognomy, but completely out of bounds. He swallowed it down. A little was fine. The lengths in which his imagination was pushing it, absolutely wasn’t.

“Not yet. Let's talk some more.”


	2. Sludge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm jumping in just to say that I'm sticking to this short chapter format, and that chapter number is not set in stone, since all I have is an outline and about half of the drafts.  
> On with the thing.

They stepped into a dimly lit corridor, Jounouchi in the back and wary of the outside. The lights had turned on at around the same time that the sky had begun to turn from dark blue to a cloud covered pale violet. While they made the building feel considerably less unsafe, the ghostly nature of the blue-white halogen was still a far cry from comfort, and it still wasn’t strong enough a light either. It nearly made him want to stay, but he knew there had to be better things out there. His own home, for starters. What he wouldn’t give to be back home.

He checked his watch. It was two in the afternoon. That hadn’t been just a long night away from the life he knew. It had been an abnormally long night as well.

Kaiba was staring at him. Why were they still standing around?

“What?” Jounouchi asked. Kaiba shook his head and walked away.

Something was off, and apparently, not up for discussion. Grumbling, Jounouchi made sure both straps of the backpack he had found were hanging from his shoulders. He was carrying some essentials: some food that they had found, some water, the bare minimum for first aid, a knife, some things that Kaiba had handed to him. The lighter fluid was a blessing. He wasn’t sure about the bullets, though, but Kaiba had insisted by putting them back in himself. He had made sure not to fill the bag up entirely. He never knew what he could find later, right? And the less weight, the better. After all, he was the only one carrying anything. Kaiba didn’t look like he was even willing to entertain the suggestion that he should help a little. Jounouchi had considered only bringing enough food and water for himself out of spite but…

He couldn’t do that. Kaiba was being a nuisance by not cooperating, but he’d come around when things got difficult. That was the way things usually went. And he wasn’t being entirely useless. He had actually taken something with him: a notepad and a pen.

“Are you making a map?”

His question went ignored, but it had an answer that was obvious enough for him to not bother repeating it. Kaiba stopped in his tracks, and turned around. Jounouchi waited expectantly.

They kept going.

There weren’t that many doors, for what was supposed to be an apartment complex. Even though he had a feeling that it would be useless, he still stopped to inspect the locks of any that he came across. Every single one was a jumbled mess of pins knocked out of place. Sometimes he couldn’t even tell what they were made of. Even if he had more than the most basic instruments, these would likely stay unpicked.

“It doesn’t matter. We already have what we need.”

That was a voice he hadn’t heard in a while. Ever since… Well, he hadn’t said anything since he had slammed the bedroom door last night.

“There could be something important,” Jounouchi said.

Yet Kaiba didn’t care. He kept dictating the cadence of their walk. The fast pace he had decided for their expedition was equally infuriating and exhausting, especially with how disorienting the place was. He understood the need to find an exit, but hideouts could be necessary as well. They couldn’t keep going forever in a maze of corridors and open empty rooms with a rare flower-patterned couch here and there, a painting on one wall or the other, stone statues of animals in the corners… and whatever _that_ was.

He wasn’t going to look at it for more than a second. The damn thing had him shivering just by being in the corner of his vision. Plus, he had no words for it. He doubted there were any, for things had to exist at least in concept before they could be named. _That_ was probably not even meant to be thought about.

They walked on in silence, with Kaiba at the head, while he kept a close watch on both their backs. Not getting separated was turning out to be a challenge, for Kaiba had a habit of walking off on his own further into more and more corridors, and he was sure no yelling of “Marco” would get him a “Polo” back. He really hoped this would turn out to be some sort of founded confidence and not just excessive cockiness.

“Do you know the way by any chance?”

No answer again. His head hurt. Another _thing_ was in front of him. Square-ish. Rather colourful. Was that a painting? Were those crude flat lines supposed to be a frame? He looked into it so hard that it made all his face hurt. It reminded him of a ballerina in a huge wig, made entirely out of marble. It had volume. If he touched it, would it feel like a painting or a figurine?

After what his watch told him had been one hour of encountering strange sights and trying not to fall behind, he finally ran out of ways to express his disbelief. At this point, he didn’t want to see anything more. He’d gladly take his eyes off, leave them on a table, and sod off somewhere very far away.

His patience finally depleted, he turned the same corner Kaiba just had, and he went to grab him by the collar of his dirty coat, to force him to listen and say anything at all. He stopped midway.

He looked down the corridor, and saw Kaiba very far off in the distance. He ran for him, realizing that he was standing at a split. That…

Something was off, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. But this wasn’t the time to stop to think.

“Would it hurt you to wait for me?”

Was he deaf or something? An acknowledgement that he had just said, or even a word about this weather would be at least a start. He had been so chatty before, and now he didn’t even look like he was at all there. Jounouchi was starting to prefer the interrogation from last night over this.

“Don’t ignore me!”

Kaiba turned around and glared. It confirmed some things. Namely that there was indeed something colder and more hostile about him than usual. Jounouchi followed him into a wider hallway that was much lighter than any of the previous ones, the row of windows next to him being a much better light source than the old ceiling lamps. He set his worry aside for a second, and his eyes opened wide.

“Hey, I see a fire escape!”

He ran up to the glass door separating them from the outside. It clicked open. A gentle breeze grazed his face. He stepped out on the steel grating of the red staircase and looked around. There were blocky buildings everywhere here, not just this one; all of them seemed more of the same, except coloured differently. Brightly, even. Red, pink, blue, yellow, green. Far in the distance, it looked like confetti. Fitting. Fresh air was worth a bit of celebration by itself.

“I hope you’re taking note of this one,” he said turning around.

Kaiba closed his notebook. He already had. Only now, under the natural light of the sky, was Jounouchi noticing that he had taken one more thing with him, other than the notepad and the pen he was putting back in his breast pocket. With a hand clad in a militaristic white glove, Kaiba pointed at something further up.

“We should probably look into that.”

About three floors higher, the building connected to tall dark tower through a concrete tunnel suspended in the air. There was something off about this too. He also couldn’t tell what it was. There were several things off about this place, if he thought harder. This looked like a third floor. Shouldn’t they be on the second?

He had run up like crazy from that monstrosity from last night. He probably skipped a floor with how terrified he had been of the hawk-like creature. It was a lot more scares in one single being than he could handle.

What if they found something like it in the tower too?

“Should we? Really?”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Kaiba asked and then led the way, having already decided for the two of them, and Jounouchi didn’t feel like questioning it further. It did look a lot more promising that going into any of the other floors, which from outside, looked like more of the same they had been dealing with for too long now.

Although, he would argue against the attitude.

“Who are you to call the shots for the two of us?” Apparently, the conversation was over, for Kaiba was not turning back or stopping. “Hey. I’m talking to you. I’m not shutting up until you give me an answer, Kaiba. You know you’re acting like a dick again, right? All I’m asking for is that you say something when I ask a question. I know you’re listening. I’m gonna grab your ankle, if you don’t start paying me attention, I’m serious.”

He didn’t actually mean it, and he hadn’t attempted it, but he almost got kicked in the face for saying it. That hadn’t been an accident. It had missed, but only because Jounouchi was quick enough to stop and dodge.

“Are you serious!” He yelled. “Don’t just keep climbing! That was fucked up!”

“Shut up, already.” It was barely a mutter, but the wind brought it to his ears nonetheless.

“Like hell I’m shutting up!” The steel grate clanked loudly under his sneakers as he rushed up to make up for the new distance. “What was that for? I’m not that dumb to actually pull you down these stairs!”

And again, Kaiba, wasn’t answering. At all. Not even a half-assed huff, nothing. Jounouchi’s eyes rolled painfully. Fine. If he had to resort to insults, he’d do that.

“Should we go back so you can take a nap like the huge baby you’re being, instead?”

“Did your father not give you enough attention?”

“Yeah? Wouldn’t _you_ know something about that?”

Frankly, it did hurt; he bounced it back because he knew it did. And he got Kaiba to finally turn around and look down at him for one second so it had to be worth something. However, that was it. They were back to climbing, apparently, as if Jounouchi wasn’t there. But he was there, and he was going to prove it. He went to grab Kaiba by his coat, to get him to react, even though his mind was telling him this was a bad idea.

Because it was. The moment he felt the pull, Kaiba snapped. He pushed Jounouchi back, and almost past the rail and down five floors.

Jounouchi scrambled to keep his feet somewhere solid, to help himself from tipping over by tightly hugging the rail and tensing up. Looking down at what could have happened, sweat formed at his temples. There was a playground down there. Gravel. He could be there, right next to the swings, with about ten or more broken bones or his skull cracked, with an oddly placed Buddha statue that he was just now seeing blessing his death with a calm smile.

His lungs began to function again when his fear finally turned into anger. Kaiba clicked his tongue.

“What the fuck are you doing!” He shouted at him.

“Don’t you dare touch me again! Stop riling me up!” Kaiba said back, his back already turned to Jounouchi’s disbelieving face.

“You’re trying to kill me!”

“I will if you don’t stop acting like a damn clown!” He looked down through the grate at Jounouchi. “Do you see a big sign on top of me that says that I want to talk? Because I don’t!”

“How can I blindly follow you even though I’ve got no clue what’s going on?”

“I don’t either, so you might as well,” he hissed, resuming his climb. Jounouchi rapidly steadied himself and closed the gap with trembling legs, but it only made Kaiba go up faster.

“Yeah, well that sure puts me at ease. That’s only more reasons to—”

“Stop.”

They were at the top, and these words were final. It was in his eyes, in the straight line of his back and shoulders. In the unwavering hatred behind.

“Stop what?”

“If you’re going to be a liability, be my guest and go off by yourself. I don’t have the patience for whatever it is you’re trying to do.”

Jounouchi’s deep ragged breathing was the only thing that reached both their ears for a while. Now it was his fault? No way. He had no reason to put up with any of this. It was likely better for him to turn back and ditch now.

But why?

Something was up. He knew that; he wasn’t that dumb. His heart was racing, obviously not for a good reason. But if it had been that bad, he wouldn’t be have forgotten about it. Yet, again…

He had decided to go along with Kaiba because that was the safest bet, right? It did bother him that he couldn’t remember what he was angry about, but that must have meant that it was another stupid fight like any other. Not to mention they were right where the tunnel started. Now, where this tunnel led to, he had no idea, but it had looked important, and it had to be, or they wouldn’t have been here.

His options were limited. He could go with his gut, or he could do the sensible thing and not get separated. That was usually a bad thing. Not to mention only Kaiba had a map.

He cleared his throat

“I’m just saying that you don’t have to be such a dick about it,” he decided as he followed Kaiba into the tunnel. What was “it,” he’d have to find out.

They stepped in and out of a hole on the wall, and they were now standing in a small room that had been divided in half by steel bars and a gate. One door, two counters and a desk, a couple chairs, and the bare minimum of office paraphernalia were on their side. An open book was on the desk. On the other side, out of reach, they could clearly see safes, shelves, a computer, documents and calculators, and transparent bags with small amounts of money in them. Jounouchi tried the door, but it didn’t open. Solid steel, or probably reinforced, going by the sound it made when he knocked on it. He turned around to see Kaiba inspecting the book.

“What did you say sister’s surname was?”

“Kawai.”

"Do you know a Kawai Sachiko, by any chance?"

That was his mother. He strode towards the book as Kaiba stepped away. It was her, her handwriting, her name in yellow highlighter, on a page with an equally colourful sticky bookmark on the border. His sister’s name was right under hers as well, and the same went for his uncle just a little further down. He began to look at other pages and lines that had been also marked. All of them were people he knew. Neighbours, friends, former gang members. Sometimes, however, a blank line would be highlighted. Sometimes, he had no idea who some of these people were. Kajiki Ryouta? Where had he heard that name before?

He then looked at the first page. Someone had printed and pasted a sheet with writing in all caps.

_EVERYONE MUST SIGN IN BEFORE ENTERING THE TREASURY._

He stretched his hand out for the pen that Kaiba had, and wrote down his name, his phone number, his address, date of birth, current date and current time, as the columns specified. And the gate clicked open.

“See if you can find something useful there.”

“Why don’t you help me search?”

“I’m going to take a closer look on this side.”

Rummaging between the little bags with coins, Jounouchi was afraid he would find nothing. Money was useless to him right now. He had the idea to look inside the plastic boxes under the desks, and found only cash, again. Looking at the wires from down there, he thought that perhaps Kaiba would be luckier with the computer. But only if there was something to plug it into.

He knocked his head against the desk as he straightened out, and then he noticed it. A switch, right next to the area he had just impacted.

He pressed it, it buzzed, and the door opened. He got up, with a victorious smile.

“That’s three less brain cells,” Kaiba said, completely serious, before he could brag even a little. He grumbled, and he then forgot about it when he noticed a sheet of A4 paper held by a pair of gloved hands.

“What’s that?” Jounouchi said, stepping out of the jailed area.

“It feels important.”

It was a printout:

FRIENDLY REMINDERS TO ALL EMPLOYEES

DON'T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR CREDENTIALS. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ONE, HR WILL DO THEIR BEST TO DELIVER WITHIN TWO DAYS.

THIS LAYER WILL DISAPPEAR ONCE THERE'S NOBODY LEFT. WORK HARD WHILE YOU CAN.

DO NOT IGNORE THE CAT. IMMEDIATELY CLOSE ANY WINDOWS OR DOORS IT OPENS.

DO NOT STRAY FROM PATHS. PATHS ARE THERE FOR YOUR SAFETY.

ARCHITECTURE AND TEXTURE FLAWS ARE TO BE REPORTED TO A MANAGER OR SUPERVISOR.

DO NOT IGNORE KEYS. HAND ANY KEYS YOU FIND TO A MANAGER OR SUPERVISOR.

ANYONE SEEN TRYING TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE BODHISATTVA IN THE LAKE WILL BE FIRED ON THE SPOT.

INQUIRIES SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO THE FOLLOWING NUMBER: 567 252 5001 2420.

GREECE CAN BE CONTACTED BY CALLING THE FOLLOWING NUMBER: 567 252 5001 2510.

DO NOT BOTHER THE OPERATOR OR GREECE WITH USELESS QUESTIONS.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, CALL OUTSIDE OF BUSINESS HOURS.

RESPECT THESE RULES AND YOUR COWORKERS FOR A HEALTHY AND STABLE WORK ENVIRONMENT

“It’s weird,” Jounouchi decided.

“Very introspective. Let’s head out.”

Jounouchi made a point to leave a chair to keep the door open. There was a second door that also seemed like it could close to never open again, if they left it alone. A trashcan would do for it.

In this little, claustrophobic corridor they walked into, there were two other doors, one in front of them, and one to their right. The latter had a little window, from which they could see an office, and a numbered keypad; the former led to a store, right in front of the checkout lines. There were no customers, and only one…

He had no clue what that was. It looked like a slug with a teal lanyard hanging from around what could have been a neck, if it had a head. It had eyes, at least, two little black beads at the top part of it. A very dark yellow green substance made up its rest of it wet, soft and rippling body. It moved. It looked alive. And in his mind, it also looked bored to be sitting behind the only checkout counter.

As horrible disgusting as it looked, he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for it. Still, it was not enough for him to make him want to go near and have a conversation. It was gross, it probably felt gross to touch too, and the colour reminded him of things that smelled horrible. Lucky for him, Kaiba looked more interested in going into the office.

“Three, four, five, nine,” Kaiba whispered to himself.

“Is that the pass?”

“Probably not, but I still need to check something.”

Kaiba pressed the digits in. One red light out of three in the pad lit on. Upon closer inspection, Jounouchi saw what it was that made Kaiba choose those numbers. The paint on them was worn out, while it was intact on all the rest.

Four digits was still a lot for only three attempts. If they got locked out, there was a chance that they wouldn’t just miss out on something important, but they might attract some unwanted attention from the creature he had just seen. An alarm wouldn’t be unthinkable.

“We should see if we can find clues somewhere,” Kaiba decided.

However, Jounouchi had a good feeling about this one. He pressed 4593. It beeped and opened. He clapped once, raised his hand, and reminded himself on time that slapping Kaiba in the back was probably a bad idea, for some reason. It wouldn’t get him to stop from some other things, like a smirk, and a:

“In your face,” with a hard F.

Leaving Kaiba behind to unamusedly jot down the right combination, just in case they needed it again, he wandered in. And he was promptly shoved aside. It was fine, though. He was far from being the right person to be put in charge here. He was already not that great with technology, but two of the three computer screens made absolutely zero sense to him now. No text, not anything discernible. Just a bunch of what he would call computer guts and glitches, moving and constantly changing. Kaiba sat in front of one.

“Can you handle that? There’s one over there that looks normal.”

Was it just his imagination, or had Kaiba just repressed something from showing on his face?

“It’s asking for a password.”

“Can’t you hack it or something?”

“Is your brain rotting?”

He couldn’t think of a good comeback. His mind was really failing him today in regards to that. He frowned and turned around. Whatever. Kaiba could handle this if he wanted to, and, with that attitude, he would do it on his own.

“Fine. Fix that shit while I go check the store.”

“Don’t get lost.”

With a sigh, he admitted to himself that Kaiba had a point there. He could take pictures. It was easier than mapping the place. He patted his pocket and—

“Ah, shit. My phone. I think I left it charging back in—”

Kaiba searched into one of his pockets and took it out to hand it to Jounouchi. It was his. Same model, same case, even the same Scapegoat charm hanging from it. And Kaiba stared at him.

“I noticed,” he said.

How and when… Why hadn’t he said anything?

“Oh. Cool. Do you have the charger too?”

“It should be in your backpack.”

He looked, and it was there. All he did was nod. Putting events together in a sequence was proving a little difficult, but apparently, he had taken the charger and not the phone. His attention failed him sometimes, but this one was a little weird. He didn’t remember unplugging it. Maybe Kaiba had.

Feeling confused, he stepped out of the office, closing the door behind him, and then went out into the store. The slug sitting at the cash register gave him what he assumed could have been a look, for its eyes didn’t move, but it felt like it was facing in his direction. He noticed that there was another one of these creatures, with a red lanyard, near the entrance to this part of the floor. The slimy guard spoke:

“Welcome to ■■■■■.”

He had no clue what that had been, and he wasn’t going to ask. He wasn’t going to think about it.

There was nothing to think about.

This was one of these stores that had basically a little bit of everything. He could read the signs hanging from the ceiling, and they followed no logical order. Deli was next to apparel, for one, and right next to that were personal hygiene products, and then frozen foods. It was a long way to the very end, so he couldn’t tell what the rest of the signs said. There seemed to be multiple floors too, judging by the endless spiral of escalators.

“Ugh, this place…” he said to himself and sighed.

For a while, he focused on getting things that they could need. There had only really been some yogurt, fruit and eggs in the fridge inside the apartment, and some bread in the pantry. Not enough, if you were to ask him, but this was the right place to get things that would last longer and be more durable. The bare minimum would do, but he did get an extra bag to make Kaiba carry something, because that wouldn’t be half bad either. Since there was a carpentry area, some paint to leave marks and a few tools wouldn’t hurt them. Last night had gotten chilly, and Jounouchi could really use a thicker jacket too. There was no gauze, but plenty of white shirts, and he already had things to disinfect a wound with. He’d say he was almost done.

What else?

He was walking past a little area with a small assortment of electric appliances, right past a row of television screens, when he saw a column that made less and less sense the more he approached it. It was like looking at a straw through a full glass of water, but there was still a tense thread connecting both halves that were about two meters apart. It was emitting a humming noise.

What was that other sound next to him? Static? He blinked rapidly, trying to remember if the LSD screen next to him had been on before. It was getting louder. And he remembered the radio, and what this could mean.

He hid behind an empty shelf the middle of the aisle. Four rapidly moving masses of a watery substance rushed past him. Th estatic grew louder until one of them turned off the TV, and then, only the hum coming from the column remained. They stopped in front of it, and appeared to examine it closely, almost touching it.

“It’s too far up,” one of them said.

“But you can fix it, right?” Another answered.

“It should take me just a little push and pull. But I’m going to need the carrier.”

“We’ll go report this and ask for permission. Make sure no customers go near it.”

One stayed, and the other three made a beeline for checkout counters. Their general direction made Jounouchi worried. That was also more or less were Kaiba was. He followed them closely, grabbing something useful and stuffing in in the new bag on the way. The cashier stood up after talking to the other three, and they all headed to either the office or the treasury. Jounouchi ran after them. If they closed the two doors he had left open, they could be screwed. And there was also the problem of how they’d react to Kaiba. He had closed that door on his way out, right? Maybe, if their sight was bad enough, Kaiba would be able to hide as soon as he heard the door beep open.

He opened the first door carefully, and watched, horrified, how they became liquid and slipped into the office through a little opening underneath.

On the other side, Kaiba was standing next to the copier, surrounded by and unaware of the creatures, with a pile of paper in his hands. The slugs were awkwardly standing around him. Jounouchi punched in the code to get the door open. To his relief, it still worked. Kaiba turned around at the sound, unharmed, but taken aback by this sudden situation. He was wordlessly asking Jounouchi for an explanation, but he didn’t have one to give.

“Boss, we found a faulty pillar.” One of the slugs said.

“You did?” Kaiba asked, playing along. He shook his head at Jounouchi lightly. ‘Go hide,’ was what he was hinting at. Jounouchi stepped out of sight, leaning against the wall, still listening in.

“■■■ is taking care of it right now. What should we do?”

“That’s not really something I can focus on right now. Is there anyone else who can handle it?”

"You can’t?”

“I have to leave There’s a meeting I need to get to.”

“Ah, I see.” They muttered between each other for a while, discussing who else was there and where they could be. Kaiba began to walk away, the familiar sound of the heel of his boots clicking loudly against the tiled floor capturing Jounouchi’s attention entirely.

Those shoes didn’t look or sound comfortable now that he thought about it.

“Thank you for your hard work," Someone said. Nobody he knew. Jounouchi sighed when Kaiba crossed the door frame. He didn’t know where this wave of relief was coming from, but he smiled nonetheless, and asked:

“So, did you find anything?”

“ ** _THIiS IS AnN EMPLOYEeES ONnLY AREAaA._** ”

It was a shriek. It was not human. He stood there paralysed, trying to understand what could have made such a noise. There were clearly some details that he was—

Kaiba took him upon himself to grab him by the wrist and pull him along, then kick away the trash can, the chair, and let the doors slam shut behind them. Jounouchi was pushed to the front. They were running away? Fine, they were running away. He scrambled up the desk and attempted to climb back into the hole in the wall. He was being pushed into it, but it was blocked by a rough slab of concrete. As the slugs began to seep from under the door, he read out loud the red letters that he had just noticed were in front of him.

“It says please return key!”

Who was he saying this to?

“Fine!”

Kaiba furiously threw a bunch of keys past the gates. A soft voice came from the speakers.

“ _Thank you_.”

Concrete turned into sand in front of his eyes. He felt another push.

“Go!”

He crawled in and then out the other side. They ran. He turned his head around and remembered the missing details. They, now turned into a huge wave of sludge, were rolling forwards, filling the tunnel in a violent landslide barely a few metres behind.

"They're gonna follow us into the apartment!" Jounouchi shouted.

"No, they won't!"

They stepped out of the tunnel. He kept running down the stairs, trying to balance himself and the two bags he was carrying. However, Kaiba’s footsteps were not following him anymore. He stopped to look up, fearing what he would see, heaving. Astounded.

Kaiba was standing on the grating, equally out of breath. The slugs were not stepping down from the tunnel. Little parts of themselves dripped all the way down to the gravel in the playground whenever they got a millimetre too close to it.

“He didn’t pay for that,” one of the now many creatures calmly said.

“He will later.”

The siren blared.

“As you say, boss.”

They retreated back into the tunnel. But Jounouchi was now focused on the sound filling the air.

“It’s not going to get dark now, is it?”

“No guarantee.” Kaiba said, sitting down on the stairs, with the stack of papers on his thighs, and leafing through them as if nothing had happened. “We should still try to head back. Did you find anything useful?”

It was odd to hear him being civil again. He wasn’t coming down from up the stairs. When Jounouchi tried to go up to show him what he got, Kaiba told him to just throw the bag at him.

“What if it falls?”

“In that case, leave it there, go down, and I’ll pick it up.”

He didn’t understand why it was so important to keep their distance, but he had to admit Kaiba was being a lot more reasonable from afar. There had to be a reason.

He could not remember. He knew they had talked, and that he had felt rather cornered. And he remembered being woken up by a pillow going right to his head, and then Kaiba slamming the door of the bedroom from the other side, and saying how he refused to keep guard. That it wasn’t even necessary.

He had to know something. That anger had to come from somewhere.

“Are you still mad?” Kaiba asked, seeing as Jounouchi wasn’t doing as he had been told.

“Mad?”

This was even more confusing now. He wasn’t angry. Well, a little bit, what with how Kaiba had behaved recently, but this (this?) had all started not out of pure, undiluted anger. Jounouchi had been offended at some point. And he had decided to do something about it. He wasn’t sure how this added up. Probably because it didn’t.

Offended over what?

“Don’t sweat it,” he decided, eventually, feeling like thinking about it too hard wasn’t worth the headache. He went down another floor, leaving both bags behind.

Kaiba went down the flight of stairs that separated him from them, and knelt down to take a look. Jounouchi sat down, with his feet hanging from the ledge of the stairs, his arms hanging from the lower rails, looking down at the massive Buddha statue.

He sighed. Nothing here made any sense. He felt a tremendous pull to spit at the statue for doing nothing.

“Jounouchi.”

Kaiba sounded more worried than angry, but he could have probably sawn Jounouchi’s head off if it hadn’t been because of that.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you bring an electric kettle?”

He tilted his head.

“What do you mean why? They’re convenient.”

Kaiba swallowed and muttered a “we don’t need one,” that Jounouchi barely caught on to. And he didn’t really get it. They really were convenient. Sure, maybe they didn’t _need_ it, but it was by no means a bad idea.

“What, do I owe you money?” He shouted at Kaiba, who was now staring.

Once again, Kaiba didn’t engage, but as they finally marched on, back and into the corridors, he kept turning his head around. Probably tired of Jounouchi making faces at him every time he caught on, he resolved:

“You’re walking by my side now.”

“Really? Why?”

“No real reason.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If some things are confusing, that was the point. The question now is: does it work, or does it meander too much?
> 
> I apologize for not being distant enough from the text to catch all mistakes, but once again, I feel like if I don't do this now, I might make myself more nervous, as my own expectations about what I should be able to do continue to rise. I will try to learn how to function in this context someday. Or maybe I'll find a helping hand. For now, thank you for your patience.


	3. Reliant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't want to edit this anymore for the time being, but I will get back to it in the future to check for errors, once I've distanced myself enough from the text. I feel like it does what it's supposed to do, at least, and I haven't made an update to this in a while. So here it is.

The less he thought about this second day, the better, but as things stood, he could not afford to feel better. Three things were wrong, and as far as Kaiba was concerned, he was the only one noticing what they were.

First off, his notes were close to useless. He had mapped the place carefully; some of it lined up, and in some cases, he stumbled upon nonsense that he had never asked for: missing doors, random walls that turned paths into dead ends, and some differences in the décor and furniture that he had taken note of as landmarks. It was not _impossible_ to navigate, but it was harder. The Marie Antoinette painting he had seen a while back was still there. Comparing it to the picture of it that he had on is phone allowed him for some certainty that not everything had changed. And he had a manual. Possibly. He couldn’t just trust any random document, however, and he’d have to collect some data first. But most importantly?

He wasn’t forgetting things anymore. Just in case, he had snapped some pictures of what he had in the notebook as well. His notes matched. He had also put some copies in Jounouchi’s phone, which was currently idly being fiddled with by his owner.

“Can you hand me that?”

“No? Why would I—”

Not in the mood for this, he snatched it away.

“Hey!”

A distraction. He turned Jounouchi around to face a potted plant, hoping he’d get as stuck with it as he had the first time they had gone past this corridor. He’d have time to get worried about this later. Right now, he needed the few seconds it took for Jounouchi to make sense of what he was seeing to check the pictures.

They didn’t match. Jounouchi’s version of his was word salad and random lines. There should have been a picture of that same plant he was looking at as well. He found it. He thought he did at least, because that was not a plant. That was something else that he hadn’t seen before in his entire life, with just a vague hint of, maybe, leaves.

He slipped the phone back in Jounouchi’s pocket before he came back from his stupor. With a little push, he got the two of them back on track.

“Where are we going?” Jounouchi asked him.

“I need to take some notes first, but then to the apartment, if possible. I’m going to need some room to think.”

“The apartment?”

“From last night.”

“Oh. That.”

And that was the second problem. Jounouchi’s memory wasn’t getting any better; he’d argue it was getting worse. Forgetting about the apartment wasn’t all that strange. He knew what it was like, having forgotten the white room, the school, the forest, and even the city at some point. But he had regained those memories by the time he had woken up, and he had assumed there was a delay in memory formation. He thought maybe it was related to sleep, so he’d let Jounouchi take a nap and ask again. That had been the plan.

Which led to the start of the third issue. Because it didn’t go well. After only a couple hours of keeping watch, he couldn’t stand to be in the same room anymore. He didn’t understand why. All he knew was that he was getting upset at a man who was doing absolutely nothing but sleep. Not talking until his ears ached, no bringing up old dirt from the past, not being a busybody, or saying anything remotely stupid. Just existing.

He had stormed out, because otherwise, he would have smothered Jounouchi with a pillow. If it hadn’t been for a second of clarity, he would have sat next to the bed, and…

“Where are going again?”

“Apartment.”

“Right. Right. Um… we’re not going around in circles, are we?”

Kaiba was getting a dull ache in his jaw.

“No, we’re not.”

“Oh. Ok.”

They stopped not too long after that, because Jounouchi stopped, to stare at a stain on the floor, in this instance. He understood now the reason behind the stops, but that didn’t mean he had to be understanding. This was consuming way too much of their time. It couldn’t be too bad to give him a little incentive to get back to moving. He might even not do it again, if it hurt badly enough.

Just as he was considering it, Jounouchi resumed business as if nothing happened. No acknowledgement, no lingering confusion. Taking a deep breath, Kaiba knew he’d soon have to come to terms about what was going on in that head. From up close, it was undeniable, despite being no expert: Jounouchi was losing time.

The condition wasn’t his fault, he reminded himself as he tried to calm down a little. Their eyes met, and Jounouchi seemed to catch on to his irritation. He looked purposefully displeased. And at that point, it got worse. He had been acting like a buffoon within a two-metre radius for the last couple hours, and Kaiba was tired of putting up with the circus act, and now an attitude on top of that.

He reminded himself that the impulse might have been strong, that Jounouchi was very capable of violence himself. And working with another person was convenient. He didn’t want it to be misconstrued, this was only for the sake of—

"Sorry, where are we going?"

_Well, you see, I'm trying to have some useful thoughts for the two of us, since you clearly can’t, and to either get back to the apartment or find something new. But I keep running into these walls and you won't stop interrupting me with the same question. You fucking moron._

“Jounouchi.”

“Yeah?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

An offended noise died in Jounouchi’s throat.

“Alright. Fuck you too.”

Let it die there. Do not escalate. He bit his cheek on the inside and tasted blood. This was ok. He could stifle it down, if he really wanted to. And he wanted to, because this really didn’t feel like it was coming from himself. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t the way he did things most of the time, but it could be done.

He stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just give me a second.”

Jounouchi gave him a worried look, and then turned around. His back might as well have a target. Kaiba turned his head towards the floor instead.

The truth was that being capable of quick and complex reasoning didn’t necessarily make a person work like a machine. Or maybe it did, except he felt more like an overzealous, constantly wired machine, the kind that still stubbornly stuck to trying to complete a task, even as it malfunctioned.

His goal was to leave. Not to mess with Jounouchi. And yet, the thought was eating up his attention like a greedy, resource consuming process that refused to be terminated. His ability to control his impulses had always been lacking, and this was no exception. He was more neurotic than his usual. And his usual was already a lot higher than he liked it to be. What was that thing someone had dared tell him one time? Deep breaths? He took a few, and looked up. Maybe he could keep it in check.

Jounouchi was looking at who cares what. With his breath steady, Kaiba followed his line of vision. _This isn’t a good moment to be appreciating art_ , he thought. He stayed there, as he fought the emotions that came with his inner monologue.

This really wasn’t him. If he paid close attention, these directives, this impulse came from somewhere else. It sounded like his own, but something was off. And it was about to override—

"What even is that?"

Kaiba hit the wall next to him with the back of his fist.

"It's a damn painting of a vase, for hell's sake! Would you stop this nonsense already!"

"A what?"

“A vase! Do you know what a vase is!”

“That’s not a vase! Just ‘cause you’ve got some… That’s some psychology test shit!”

The siren blared once again, and Kaiba’s words were left unheard, probably for the best. Jounouchi appeared to reset once more, leaning against a wall and collapsing with a sigh.

“I need a break. My feet hurt.”

 _My feet hurt_. _What a_ _child_.

Whatever it was, he mentally told it to shut up. Jounouchi had a point. Outside the window, the horizon was beginning to turn dark grey. The lights inside the building getting dimmer as well. He checked the time on his phone. 1 AM. A four-hour differential from last time. More time walking than most people could handle.

_This isn’t the time to be coddling him._

Was that him? It also had a point. But he wanted to take advantage of the distraction first to check how something else was going. No. He wasn’t going to pull Jounouchi to his feet yet. _Stop insisting, this is more important_.

It shut up, at least for the time being. That would do.

He lifted the glove a little to see how his hand was going.

“What’s that on your—”

Fine. He put the glove back on, reached down, and grabbed Jounouchi for his forearm. Perhaps more aggressively than he had intended. If that was the case, Jounouchi attempting to pry and shove him away definitely made sense.

“Kaiba! Cut this shit out now!”

“You keep struggling and I’ll chop you into ten pieces and then mail them to your parents.”

A particularly nasty hit against his elbow made him let go, not because of the pain on impact, but because if he didn’t before it connected, Jounouchi’s brute strength would have likely snapped the joint. Taking many steps back, he turned away, towards a window.

That had been a close one. He moved his elbow. It didn’t hurt. It had probably caused Jounouchi more damage if he had accidentally hit his arm guard as well. Focus on that and calm down already. Take a look outside. There had to be something…

There _was_ something out there, in the distance. Round, dark. Some sort of sun? He could focus on that. He would have to focus on that.

“Goddamn, you’re fucked up…” When Kaiba turned around, Jounouchi was standing once more. He looked more than simply exhausted. It was likely that he could pass out, if he kept going for much longer. “Good luck getting them to care.”

“Do you ever shut up?”

“You know what? Yes. I really don’t feel like talking anymore. Apartment, right?”

So he finally had the head to remember at least that.

Jounouchi stayed behind the staircase, while Kaiba sat on the stairs, at a safe distance, while he attempted to calm down. This stupid wall. Solid. Too thick to take down without some type of power tool. And it was in the way back to the apartment. They had been lucky enough to find an area that was moderately safe in lieu of it, but it was still too open for Kaiba’s taste. Jounouchi, on the other hand, didn’t appear to remember to be afraid.

Under the stairs, hey had found a fireplace that was burning gently, although the chimney was interrupted by the stairs themselves, and there was no chimney on the other side. Where the smoke was going, they had no clue, but Kaiba didn’t find it particularly unsettling. Jounouchi had been a tad more uncomfortable. The fire emitted no light past the stairs, which caused a sharp line to appear. It was what had originally caught their attention to the place. Shadows on the wall and floor were absent. At first, Jounouchi had wanted nothing to do with it, and he only stayed there because it was warm, but when Kaiba came back to this strange scene, Jounouchi was nearly nodding off on the floor. He yawned. It was almost contagious.

“It’s too hot.”

Kaiba stared at Jounouchi.

“Take the damn jacket off and then see if you want to complain again.”

Was that a sigh, a groan, or a curse? Maybe all three.

“You’re just delightful today, huh?”

“What do you even know.”

They sat down on the floor. Closer to the fireplace, Jounouchi tiredly began to take out what they were carrying, as he chewed on some of the food. He handed out Kaiba his documents, and then kept rummaging, and getting surprised, mostly pleasantly, at what was in the bags. Until he stumbled upon something he didn’t like.

“Why do we have bullets?”

“In case we find a shotgun.”

Jounouchi froze, and then he shook his head.

“I’m not firing a gun.”

“Well, I might.”

“I don’t want to carry these, Kaiba.”

“I don’t think you understand how much _you_ want to hold on to those in case we do find a shotgun.”

He did not… Those were not his words.

“What’s that supposed to mean…? I…” He looked at Kaiba, and swallowed hard. As if he knew. “I’m throwing them away.”

“You don’t want a gun, which can be extremely useful, but you wanted a kettle?”

“That’s not… Hold up, what happened to my kettle?”

He should have not mentioned that.

“What kettle?”

“You just brought it up yourself! Kaiba, don’t tell me that…”

“You never got a kettle.”

“No, you just told me I did! And I remember now that I did! I have tea. I could use some for my nerves, right now. How am I supposed to—”

“Cold brew it.”

“That’s gonna take way too long!”

“Jounouchi. There isn’t even an outlet here.”

He looked around for one, probably to prove Kaiba wrong. The walls were bare, the underside of the staircase was as well. As his eyes wandered, they displayed confusion, and then, once again, forgetfulness. Kaiba took the bullets and put them back in the bag again.

This was way too easy. With that situation settled. Kaiba finally felt like he’d get a chance to focus on the documents he had printed.

“Is that like a navigation manual?” Jounouchi said, putting the food back in the bags and leaving only a bottle of water for himself.

“I think it might be,” he said, before starting with the first page. These instructions had been written to help the creatures in the store, but someone had kindly added that, just in case someone ever needed to go out, it worked in other places as well, as long as they could figure a few things out. Which was what Kaiba had been doing all this time. He thought that he now had a fairly good idea of what to expect in the apartments.

The author of the manual explained that there was a pattern, and that one only had to figure out which part of the pattern they were currently in to find their way around. A bit like a Rubik’s. The siren would blare, a new cycle would start. One thing would move, and everything else also would, but the pattern was regular and algorithmic, and after four movements, everything but one thing would be in the same position it had been before. The apartment was one cube. The city was a bigger cube. There were maps for the city and the store, and also a school and a hospital that were their own puzzles to solve.

Kaiba looked at his map and notes, and compared, did a quick count. He relaxed a little. Fortunately for them, they were inside a building that would only be closed to the outside only very rarely.

Counting was ineffective and it took too much time, so he grabbed a pen and ripped a blank page. He began to lay down the basics to a simple equation that took him no time to solve. He tested it. The entrance to the hospital was currently closed. He did it again, for the next cycle that would get announced by the siren. It would be closed then still. Again, he repeated it, until he figured out that it would be open in another sixteen hours.

That was way more time than he wanted to spend here. He’d have to find another door. Yet doing this manually would take him ages.

He fiddled with the pen. If he could get his hands on a computer with the basics, he could build themselves a little navigation helper to put in their phones in a matter of hours. It was easier than making the kind of AI that had solved the Millennium Puzzle a second time, and it was less time consuming than doing this every single time, for every single access. In case of an emergency, it would be preferable too. If they ever got separated, then they would have no problem finding each other again.

Why was Jounouchi so damn close? This could not be good for his blood pressure.

“I’m trying to focus.”

“What are you doing there?”

“Some math.”

“I can see that, but why? I mean, you still haven’t told me what’s in there, but it looks important.”

“I already—”

“I meant the details.”

Sometimes his memory seemed to be working fine. Maybe he’d get it. He wasn’t counting on it, and this made him more irritable, but if Jounouchi could commit it to memory somehow, that’d benefit the two of them.

“Alright. Look at this. This is the door that led to the apartment. A siren blared, and if you count four from here, this other door opened. Then this one did, and then this one,” he said, making sure the fact that he was making jumps of four was clear each time. “But at the same time this last one opened, the apartment closed up because of this wall blocking the access.”

“Why are we counting fours?”

“I don’t know that. Now, considering there are four sirens per cycle, except for night, when there are six…”

He continued the explanation, only because doing so would make him remember this better later on. There were some complications that could slip his mind, twenty-eight-hour long days for one, and the fact that he didn’t map all the information they needed being another, but he could make a guess. If he imagined three to five more doors than he had in his map, which seemed the likely scenario, a direct path to outside the apartment building would form sometime this night, which on their clocks would be sometime between 7 AM and 9 AM, and it would stay open for a pretty long time, if anything happened that made it hard to reach.

Right now, they were completely trapped in, however. He omitted this detail.

“I don’t get it.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“How about this?” He said, pointing to the algorithm he had begun to plan.

“Don’t worry about that. This one is more useful to you. You just replace the values with the ones we’ve already discussed, siren number, number of doors, position—”

“How are we supposed to know the siren number?”

“You just count from the last time your watch matches the actual time.”

“Wait, actual time? How are we supposed to know what—"

 _Shut up_.

“Can you not do simple math! Days are four hours longer! They match after four days! Four days pass, it resets!” He yelled, throwing the pen at Jounouchi. He dodged. Kaiba just seethed harder.

“What the—! That doesn’t add—!”

“It does add up! Don’t you try to correct me when you barely passed any of your classes in all three years of high school!”

“Fuck you, that was my best subject—!”

“Your best subject? Did you toss a pencil to pick A, B, C, or D for everything else?”

Jounocuhi swallowed, looking hurt.

“I—”

“ _You_ need to learn your place. _I_ do the thinking here, because whether you’re in your right mind or not, you wouldn’t be able to calculate your way out of your jacket, which, by the way, you’re _sweating_ , and it’s still _on_.”

He begun to take it off, as the hurt began to morph into something else.

“I just forgot about it! Are we seriously going to be this petty right now? We’re in the middle who knows where the fuck even, and you’re angry about some shit from over a year ago! It’s not even relevant!”

“I’m not upset that you suck, I hate that you can’t stay out of the way instead of making things more difficult!”

“How am I making things— You know what?”

“I don’t—!”

Who was talking right now?

“No, don’t interrupt me! I’m not done talking!” Kaiba was about to tell him that he was, but he second guessed himself. “You wanna be that kinda guy? Go ahead. You do that shit on your own, and get us out of here. Be the fucking hero, whatever. If we can’t, I can at least blame it on you, now.” Jounouchi grabbed the pen and sent it flying back. Kaiba caught it. “Fucking prick.”

“Oh, right, I’m glad that you’re trying to be so helpful.”

This didn’t even sound like him at all. He wanted to stop. Whatever was talking through him, moving through him had no right to be there.

“Well, I did try, but someone hates me so damn much that they won’t let me.”

He felt it flare up again. It had control. Over his action, over his thoughts, over his words. Over his heart. And from the back of his mind, he knew he was about to do something he would regret later. Something he truly didn’t want to do. But he had a pen. It was a very nice pen. A very sturdy metal. And Jounouchi had soft parts, like, for example, an eye. And it was a downright feral call. He raised it. Paid no mind to Jounouchi going into a defensive stance.

And he brought it down into his own hand.

That wasn’t him. That hadn’t been him. They sat in shock for a second. The glove was getting red, but his hand did not hurt in the slightest. He could hear Jounouchi shudder.

“What are you doing?”

Kaiba looked at Jounouchi straight in the eye. Horror, shock. An absolute loss of the ability to react.

“Consider this a favor,” he muttered. “And get this drilled into your head.”

“What are you—”

“I don’t hate you. That would require me giving a shit about what happens to you.”

Rapidly blinking and with a loud swallowing noise, Jounouchi finally looked away from the blood.

“This really isn’t the time. I… Ah, we have gauze and some stuff, hold up.”

He grabbed Jounouchi’s shoulder with his impaled hand. That shirt would never be white again. Pushing whatever was back there into a corner of his mind, Kaiba spoke honestly, wanting to hear his own thoughts out loud once at least.

“Think about it. What’s your merit? Entering the professional circuit on the lowest possible division? Being an amazing waiter or something? Not very impressive. And on the other side of things, you don’t even have the guts to do something that anyone could hate you for. Don’t you think you’re giving yourself too much credit here?”

The look of confusion only wanted to make him keep going in a direction that wasn’t his own. But he stopped. He hit himself with the ball of his hands on both temples and pulled on his hair. The pen. He pulled it out. More blood came out, rich and dark in colour.

This couldn’t keep on, not if he wanted to stay sane. But he couldn’t say what he felt compelled to say. He didn’t care enough about Jounouchi to hate him. He really didn’t. He never had, except when he didn’t know his place. Why now then? He had done nothing worthy of giving a damn.

Who was this voice?

It was too early to put a ring on a hypothesis, but perhaps these flares had a trigger that made them worse.

“Alright. I think I’m getting some mixed signals here… Can we forget about this? You… you should really treat that. Let me get things…” he said, getting up from his spot on the floor. He looked dazed. Had he reset again? Kaiba noticed that he felt slightly calmer. Confused as well, but calmer. He hid his hand. It could be possible. Maybe…

“Don’t you ever dare suggest that again.”

“Suggest what?”

He didn’t have much time to think about how to explain, for Jounouchi was stepping out of their hideout. It pissed him off, but not enough to make him do anything yet.

“Where are you going?”

Jounouchi stopped, pinched the bridge of his nose. A headache? Another forgotten memory maybe?

“I’m gonna go get something to make this place a little more comfortable.”

“On your own?”

“There was a couch just around here, if I’m not wrong. I’m not sleeping on the floor.”

Kaiba wanted a respite. This last few minutes had been more tiring than anything else today, with the exception of that time Jounouchi was being a pest on the stairs. A few seconds away from each other sounded good.

“Go for it.” Wait, Jounouchi was losing time. “Keep talking so I know you’re alright.”

“Sure, sure.”

Was the impulse gone? Really? That was it? Was he really feeling this much calmer? To the point where he was considering maybe taking off his boots? He was never this easy to appease. This wasn’t him. It was true that he didn’t hate Jounouchi, but he should still have been upset after an argument like that. His hand was _bleeding_.

Silence. He lifted his head.

“Jounouchi.”

“Huh?”

“Remember you’re supposed to be talking while you go for the couch.”

“I know, shut up.”

The legs of the couch scraped against the concrete floor. That sounded heavy. Jounouchi hadn’t confused a wardrobe with a couch, had he? It was probably a good idea to check just in case he was that far gone. He wanted a distraction. Something to keep him busy.

Guided by the flashlight of his phone, he drew nearer to the windows once again. There really was a couch around here, now that he thought about it. More scraping, Jounouchi making sounds of exertion. Walking around the corner, and pointing his light, Kaiba saw what the problem was, and instinctively backed away, before he could recognise it. A dark figure was lying down on the couch. It was that feathered thing from last night.

It looked asleep. His soul returned to his body in relief.

“Jounouchi, leave that be,” he whispered.

“What? I need this thing. We both do. Aren’t you tired?”

No, not physically, at least. A little mentally exhausted, yes, too much to deal with the creature on the couch.

“Are you not seeing that?”

Jounouchi looked at the beast. He clearly saw it, but he didn’t seem to recognize it. Moreover, why wasn’t it attacking? Jounouchi was not keeping his voice down.

“I don’t know what that is, but this is hardly the first thing I see that I can’t wrap my head around.” The creature lifted its head to look at Jounouchi. “Oh. Oh, fuck, it moves.”

Its feathers shook and so did its head with its many beaks and eyes. They all blinked at irregular intervals, and the little membrane of the many little nose holes expanded and contracted at the same time. While its legs twitched, it was in a tired stretch rather than any attempt to follow Kaiba, who was in its all-encompassing field of vision. No signs of aggression. Only recognition. It turned its head to face him, and its feathers flickered again, but it didn’t move.

It not attacking didn’t make him feel any more comfortable in its company. It perked up a little when the siren blared once again. Already?

“Hey, uh, buddy? Can you, like, get off the couch? I need it to sleep.”

One of many needle-like legs touched the floor, and the rest followed one by one. It no longer stood straight, its wings appeared to drag even more miserably as it approached Kaiba with its head down, as if apologizing. Its many purple eyes blinked slowly. It appeared to be inviting Kaiba to touch it. He tentatively stretched out his arm.

It pulled away, all eyes going to his gloved hand, and then to his face. Was he supposed to take the gloves off? He removed the one that was hiding nothing other than a wound that was no longer bleeding, and he tried again. The creature let itself be touched this time. Its feathers were soft, a tad moist.

And Kaiba fell to his knees.

He knew who this was. For some reason, he understood without needing an explanation. It was sorry. It hadn’t meant it, it hadn’t been in control of itself.

“You are…”

It wanted Kaiba to not say it. It wanted him to stay strong. It was a good thing to be as stubborn as he was sometimes.

“Why are you…?”

_Because that’s the way things will happen here if you’re not careful. And because those were your thoughts. Weren’t they, Kaiba? It’s fine. In understand._

It gave Jounouchi one last look, and walked out in the direction of the wall that had just opened up. Kaiba watched it leave.

“What was that thing?”

That wasn’t a thing. What if he told Jounouchi? Would that help? Could he even be trusted?

Glass broke not too far away. Kaiba ran after the creature, knowing that it had been the source of the noise, and up to the broken window it had left on its way out of the building. It glided down to the ground, and walked towards the dark sphere moving about in the distant forest, under a sky that had been flayed red just for it. It hummed, it twitched, and moved about as a singular mass. And Kaiba shuddered. He would not go there, never, in a million different timelines. That would not be the way things ended for him.

But in order to make sure, someone would have to stop making things difficult. He heard footsteps behind him.

“Jounouchi?” He said, not turning around to face him.

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember what we just fought about?”

Clearly not.

“Stop pulling my leg. If you want a fight, I will give you one.”

There it was. That’s where the anger came from, he was sure of it.

“How’s your memory lately?” Jounouchi clicked his tongue. So he was at least somewhat aware. “If it keeps getting worse, you might forget old events.”

“Yeah. I don’t want to think about it, it’s fine.”

“Perhaps names, faces. I think you might have already forgotten someone.”

Silence. _Here’s an open window—_ No. Shut up.

“Kaiba. Cut that out.”

“Words, meanings, how to put that jacket back on. You might look in the mirror and not understand what you’re seeing.”

“Can we not—!”

Kaiba raised his voice in an attempt to stifle the mockery of his own that was playing different versions of a brutal scenario in his head.

“Motor skills, the ability to form a complete sentence, what you need to stay alive. But before all that, I think you might soon forget how to find your way. I think your brain might actually be rotting.”

Jounouchi grabbed him by the arm and turned him around. This was dangerously close to the window. Third floor. Kaiba squeezed a shard of glass to prevent himself from trying to turn this around.

“Seriously. Cut that shit out. I don’t want to think about it. Let’s just hurry and get out of here before all of that happens to us.”

“To you.”

“What?”

“It’s just you. I’m getting better.”

Jounouchi spent a while processing this. He wasn’t reacting, even when he appeared to be done. Something else was bothering him, and Kaiba knew. Of course he knew. He had put it there, made it present.

“We should really cut it out with the fights.” The next words gave him a headache, as the other shouted loudly in the voice of a legion. “I’m quite worried about you, you know.”

“Yeah, right.”

He grabbed Jounouchi by the face.

“Stop being difficult, and let me take care of…” He could not. Necks were very fragile, the other yelled, as Jounouchi’s pulse raced under his thumb. He combed back some strands of blond hair. Don’t pull. Don’t scalp him. “I’ll take care of everything. How does that sound?”

Just when he had begun to wonder if that had been enough or not, Jounouchi shook himself away with wide eyes, and quickly and anxiously went back to where he had left the couch.

“Like making a deal with the devil.”

_Follow him. This could be fun._

Kaiba smirked. So that was really the way it worked then.

“The apartment should be accessible again, you know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was frankly hard to write. Work's been chaos since November, and things only began to calm down last week. It makes sense that I didn't want to touch this one during that time, seeing as it's rather draining to work on. Don't get me wrong. I like doing this, but if I'm already in a bad mood, it doesn't make it any better.  
> Anyway. I hope it was somewhat satisfactory in spite of the circumstances.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for making it this far, folks.  
> Any weird stuff might be the result of having English as my second language. Again, feedback is more than welcome.


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